


no such thing as true love, it's all just luck

by seokchi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, late night studying, taking care of each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 05:04:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15429612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seokchi/pseuds/seokchi
Summary: taeyong is up studying and ten is there to help(inspired by micheal seyer's lucky love that taeyong played during one of taeten's vlives)





	no such thing as true love, it's all just luck

Taeyong watched the hot water in his mug form ripples as he repeatably removed and dropped his teabag inside. The caffeinated tea water left brown ring stains along the inside of the cup which irked him, but he knew it would be easily cleaned. He dropped the teabag once more, causing a bigger splash that reflected the yellow light from the desk lamp. Taeyong popped the cap off his pen using his back teeth and placed it on the back of the pen. He tapped his fingernails on the desk in time with the soft music playing from his computer and swayed gently.

Finally forcing himself to return to his work, he scanned the assigned pages in his thick, used book. The student scribbled quick bullet points in his almost-full composition notebook with the ink of the black pen he held loosely. His bottom lip got caught in between his teeth after the third bullet point. The more he wrote, the more his boredom and reluctance to complete this grew.

He truly loved his major, that wasn't the problem. Some might be extremely turned off the idea of studying literature but for Taeyong, it filled him with exuberance. The problem was the current book that the professor had appointed: Wuthering Heights. Taeyong despised classic books. They were hours of ennui with hidden symbolism. He was aware that he sounded ignorant but he just preferred books with just as much meaning, only with an interesting storyline. Unfortunately, his professor was enamored with writers such as Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde, which assured boredom for Taeyong's semester.

Though, no matter how unwilling Taeyong was, it was necessary for him to finish this assignment for a good grade. He spent many sleepless nights, with coffee making up 70% of his blood, studying to actually -- finally -- get into his dream university and he wasn't going to let himself and his parents down by graduating with terrible grades.

His wrapped his thin fingers around the handle of the mug and brought the rim to his lips. It was still warm but not scalding hot so he assumed the tea would be the same. As Taeyong tilted the cup, hot liquid entered his parted lips and fortunately, it didn't burn his tongue. It tasted of sweet mint and he could feel it warming his body and reviving his energy. He set it down gently back on the desk and licked his lips.

The soft knock on the door of his dorm room startled Taeyong but knew it was quiet for a reason: to not disturb his neighbors. After all, it was 3:34 AM. He wasn't expecting anyone at this time so he was indeed confused. Still, any break from doing his work, he was more than willing to take.

He capped his pen and left it in his book as a bookmark since it often folded up by itself. Taeyong pushed his chair back and stood up, his legs instantly aching from being seated for so long. He trudged to the door with a faint head rush trailing.

Taeyong twisted the doorknob and juts noticed how little strength he had in him. It was a challenge to simply open the door, and that was worrying.

"Yongie!" the guest chirped and Taeyong still hadn't processed who it was.

After rubbing his eyes, his vision cleared to find his grinning boyfriend standing in the hall with a cup of half-empty iced coffee in his right hand.

"Ten," Taeyong breathed out desperately. He was so incredibly relieved and happy to see the beautiful boy, who shouldn't be this happy at this time. He was just so lucky he showed up, otherwise Taeyong may have ripped his hair out.

Ten scanned Taeyong's face and in seconds, he could tell he was working on homework for a long time now and was very bored from it. He sighed at the dark circles under Taeyong's eyes and his messy hair. Ten's free hand instantly flew to the soft skin of his exhausted boyfriend's cheek. Taeyong wrapped his delicate fingers around Ten's wrist and melted into his touch.

"You do not look good," Ten stated, retracting his hand and stepping into the dorm room without any invitation. It wasn't a big deal for the two. Ten often came inside without invitation but Taeyong always welcomed it, just like this time.

"Well that's a bit rude," Taeyong pouted jokingly and closed the door behind them.

Ten chuckled and placed a hand at the small of Taeyong's back, leading him towards the thing that he wanted to avoid most.

"You always look extraordinary. But now, you don't look healthy," Ten clarified and waited for Taeyong to accept his fate and just sit back in front of his assignment (which he did).

"I don't feel healthy."

Ten pulled another chair up to the desk next to Taeyong and took a seat, placing his drink down. He sighed to prepare himself, opened the book and took the pen out. Taeyong dropped his head to lean on Ten's shoulder and his eyelids began to feel heavy. He definitely preferred to use his shoulder as a pillow, rather than the hard wood of the desk. Ten noticed this and placed the book down, along with the pen.

"Baby?" Ten tried, turning his chest and cupping Taeyong's face gently with two hands. Taeyong only hummed in response with his eyes fully closed. His skin was pale and the dark circles somehow looked worse. His pink, chapped lips were parted without effort to close them. "Why don't you leave this for tomorrow and we can sleep right now?"

"Can't," Taeyong managed, his eyelids carefully fluttering open to show off the dark eyes that Ten had spent hours of his life staring into. His tongue darted out to moisten his lips. He could breathe in Ten's scent of dark coffee and cassia with the proximity being this close "It's due tomorrow."

"Yongie," Ten spoke suspiciously with furrowed eyebrows. "When was this assigned?"

Taeyong pursed his lips and removed Ten's cold hands, holding them in his own and brushing his milky thumbs across the other's golden skin. He studied Ten's eyes and his own widened slightly when he thought of something. Immediately, but delicately, Taeyong pressed his warm lips onto Ten's surprised ones. He didn't do anything more than let each other indulge in the reassuring feeling of having their loved one on their lips. Ten didn't reject the kiss and instead, pressed back. Ten could taste the mint laced on Taeyong's relaxed lips and Taeyong could taste the coffee on Ten's.

Taeyong sighed when they came apart, lips still grazing and Ten wasted no time to connect them again. Ten moved a hand up to curl his fingers in Taeyong's freshly-washed hair. He tugged at the strands, causing Taeyong to unknowingly part his lips which Ten used to deepen the kiss and trace Taeyong's teeth with his tongue.

Yes, this was Taeyong's way of avoiding the guilty answer to Ten's question. He didn't want to admit that he left his work to the last minute because he knew that Ten would scold him for it. So, instead, he opted for distracting his responsible lover with a kiss. Taeyong knew this would work beautifully because as whipped as Taeyong was for Ten, Ten was just the same. Maybe the two abused the control they had over each other too often with kisses to get out of small situations like accidentally eating the last brownie or changing each other's lockscreens, but neither payed too much attention to it. At some point, one of them realized what was happening and broke the kiss to continue to scold.

Ten suddenly remembered the question that Taeyong avoided and as much as he didn't want to, he pulled away from his lips. Taeyong whined instantly and leaned forward to feel his lips again but Ten pulled back. Taeyong huffed and retracted back to sitting normally in his seat, a pout visible on his lips.

Ten reached to tug on Taeyong's protruding bottom lip. "You're cute, but you still haven't answered my question."

Taeyong retracted the lip and bit down on it, instead. "Um," he started. "The 21st." He immediately pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows, fully expecting Ten to gasp loudly (which is exactly what happened).

"Yong, that was a week ago! You should've been done by now!" he exclaimed, pointing a finger at Taeyong.

Taeyong smiled cautiously, wrapping his hand around the finger. "Sorry..." he trailed off and avoided Ten's gaze.

Ten sighed but knew that scolding wouldn't fix the situation. He dropped his hand and rubbed his face with the other. He turned his body to face the desk and picked up the book again. "Okay, which paragraph are you at?"

Taeyong raised his eyebrows in confusion and slight shock. Ten was unexpectedly calm about his procrastination. He just started at Ten's face as he picked up to pen and looked in the book. They stayed like that in complete silence, neither having anything to say that felt fitting. Ten, noticing that Taeyong didn't answer for many moments, turned to meet his eyes. The pair searched each other's eyes for something.

"What?" Ten finally asked, slicing the silence and tension completely.

Taeyong shook his head slightly and broke his gaze, looking down at his hands. "Nothing, uh." He cleared his throat and lifted his head and pointed at the second paragraph of the left page. "That one. Just started it." He smiled softly once Ten turned his head away from him. He was lucky to have a boyfriend who would stay up with him to help him fix the mess his irresponsible habits left.

"Alright, Yongie, you're going to have to learn to skim. You'll read much quicker. Just skim the page and if anything stands out, that's what you write down."

Taeyong nodded and took his pen from Ten's hand. He wasn't motivated but he couldn't slack off or then Ten would actually scold him. Was that some kind of motivation?

"I know how to skim," Taeyong insisted.

Ten cocked his head as his lips curled into a smile. "Then you're really distracted."

"I thought that was established," Taeyong said, his voice laced with thick honey. Ten knew his voice only sounded like that when he was tired. He wrapped an arm loosely around the sleepy boy's waist. He felt sorry for the poor kid. He'd texted him that he started working at 9 PM and now, 6 hours later, he was still at it.

It was a ongoing joke that Taeyong was the "mother" of their friend group and he would often take care of them. He would remind them to eat, tell them when to stop drinking, bring extra gloves on a cold day, and it just became normal. Everyone was fine with it and Taeyong thought he was too. And in some ways, he was, but there'll be moments just like this, where it's just Ten and Taeyong and Taeyong is just so comfortable that he lets go and needs to be taken care of. It's tiring to take care of so many people and sometimes he just falls apart and forgets how to take care of himself. Lucky of him, Ten was always there to catch him, clean him up, and make sure he gets rest.

"Yongie, how many pages do you have left?"

Ten heard some mumbling that sounded like "18" and when he looked back, he found Taeyong's head resting on the desk with his eyes shut and lips agape. The desk squished his cheek a little bit and Ten almost cooed at the sight.

"18? That's not too bad. Come on, we can do it," Ten encouraged, shaking Taeyong's shoulder.

Taeyong opened his eyes slightly and groaned. He swears that right now, he's only doing this for Ten. He's only pulling himself up and skimming the pages because when he did, Ten smiled. He smiled and the yellow marigold flowers in Taeyong's heart blossomed. Sunshine shone from his bright smile and twirled around Taeyong's mind, melting him into mush. His eyes curled into crescents of moons and Taeyong sighed. Ten smiling was truly one of Taeyong's favorite things in the whole universe. It was like fresh daises in the summer and the salty breeze of the clear sea with the golden sand. It was like siping on iced, peach tea with tapioca while sitting in the emerald-green grass under the shade of a small tree. Taeyong could feel with lungs being filled with clean air and he could finally start working.

Taeyong worked calmly, skimming the pages and scribbling key points. Occasionally, Ten would lean closer and mutter tips in a soft voice which caused Taeyong's heart to flutter. They were both in a studying mindset and neither of them messed around for a good amount of time. Yes, they were dating, and yes, they could just stop working to make out and it would be casual, but they had their priorities and they always completed their responsibilities.

Taeyong managed to make good progress and his notes were well-taken, which was surprising because he was so tired. Ten would always praise him and reward him with a small kiss on his forehead or lips which Taeyong always turned pink at. After completing 11 pages, Taeyong was beyond ready to pass out. He struggled to keep his eyes open or lift his pen and Ten had to keep nudging him. How Ten was still functioning was beyond him. His handwriting become sloppier and he'd have to read a paragraph three times before the information finally got into his head. Ten was starting to lose patience but he refused to let himself get upset with Taeyong. He was already so exhausted and pushing to finish this that Ten didn't have the heart to stress him out even more.

"Yongie, look. For page 148, there was very important symbolism that you didn't write down. You need to keep an eye out because you'll take those ideas to class, and Mr. Park will be so impressed."

Taeyong stopped paying attention to what Ten was saying. Just the sound of his gentle lavender chamomile voice wrapped around Taeyong's senses and the melatonin began to increase in his brain. He rested his head on his arm laying on the table and all he focused on was Ten's voice and Ten's warm hand resting on his hip. He told himself to wake up but the thought disappeared almost immediately as he was just enveloped by comfort.

"Baby, are you even listening to me?" Ten asked, whipping his head around but softened when he saw Taeyong's eyelid closed and his body rising and falling with his slow breaths. "Oh, Yongie."

Taeyong is incredibly lucky to have a boyfriend who knew when he reached his limit. Ten knew that Taeyong did the best he could and now he needed rest. Ten put the book and pen down and wrapped his arms around his asleep boyfriend's body. He lifted him up with minimal struggle and carried him over to his bed. Ten carefully placed him on the cotton sheets and hoped that he wouldn't wake up. He lifted Taeyong's head and felt the soft hair curl around his skin before resting it on the pillow. He brought the puffy duvet over Taeyong's body and up to his chin. Taeyong let out a small whine that brought a smile to Ten’s lips. The sleeping boy’s lips were parted as he exhaled and his chest rose and fell.

“Sweet dreams, Yongie,” Ten muttered before placing a gentle kiss on Taeyong’s forehead. 

Ten sighed and turned away. He saw the abandoned cup of tea on the desk and chuckled. He also the abandoned assignment that they never completed. Taeyong was going to scold him in the morning for not waking him up to finish it, Ten knew that.

“Oh, you are lucky to have someone like me,” Ten spoke softly as he picked up the pen. 

 

 

Taeyong was awaken in the morning by the sound of his alarm angrily beeping at him. He made note of it and told himself he would shut it off later. Before he could do so, it stopped beeping by itself and he opened his eyes in suspicion.

“Morning, baby,” Ten said sweetly, tucking strands of Taeyong’s hair behind his ear.

“Tennie,” Taeyong giggled, extending his arms to stretch. “Did you stay here last night?”

“Um, yeah-“ Ten began, only to be interrupted by Taeyong sitting up speedily.

“My homework,” Taeyong stated with wide eyes. He threw the covers off and rushed to his desk. “Wait.”

There, lying on the desk, was a closed book and a notebook filled with notes. Taeyong closed the notebook slowly with furrowed eyebrows and then turned to face Ten, who was looking down at the floor with his hands in his pockets.

“Tennie,” Taeyong breathed out. He walked over and took Ten’s hands out of his pockets, holding them in his hands. Ten lifted his head and smiled brightly and proudly. It was only then, when Taeyong noticed the dark circles under his red eyes. “Baby, did you sleep at all?”

“Um, not really,” he admitted, resting his forehead of Taeyong’s shoulder.

Taeyong laced his fingers in Ten’s hair and kissed his head. “I have to go to class now, but you’re gonna stay here and sleep and when I get back, we’re gonna get some food. Okay?” 

Ten nodded, breathing in the fresh scent of cotton that enveloped Taeyong. He lifted his head and pecked Taeyong’s lips. 

“I’ll be back.”

Taeyong collected his materials and shoved it in his bag. He made sure Ten was safely in his bed before grabbing his keys and exited his room. 

He was lucky. Lucky to have Ten. Out of all the people he could possibly date, he was sure that no one would be as caring as Ten. No, they weren’t soulmates or anything like that.

 

There’s no such thing as true love, Taeyong believed, it’s all just luck.

 

And man, did he get lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> this took so long to finish and it's not the best it could've been. im just so tired and i don't have the willpower to edit and proofread.


End file.
